Wagga Wagga to Worcestershire & back again
This month has felt like a bit mixed up. A fortnight ago it was almost 40 degrees, this weekend just gone was cool and grey with the occasional shower of rain. I’ve been doing autumn jobs in the garden, like deadheading and pruning, but many of our plants are still growing new flowers, awash with colour like midsummer. Really, I shouldn’t be surprised- we are in that transeasonal period. But for some reason it feels particularly jarring this year…
Continue reading “March”
May seems to have arrived and (almost) departed with quite a frenetic pace. It’s been a busy few weeks – Adam and I have had some long days at our respective offices, we’ve both had work trips away, there’s been a rather nasty cold that ‘s affected the entire family and working bees have started in the garden of the new house – next month is moving month!
Adam and I are putting in a great deal of thought into our new garden. We plan on establishing several distinct “zones” around the house, including a large grassy play area for Paul, a sizable allotment style vegetable garden and an extensive terraced garden. It’s a project that we know will take many months of work and before we launch into it all, we want to make sure we’ve got a clear vision for how we want our outdoor areas to look.
A couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity to visit go to an open day at local nursery, Ladysmith Park Perennials. What I discovered was the dreamiest space. The living embodiment of what Adam and I had fallen in love with in magazines, books and online…
Continue reading “May”
Tomorrow marks the start of autumn in Australia, and although it’ll probably be a good few weeks until it starts feeling like autumn, I can’t wait. A huge part of my desire for milder temperatures, and hopefully, some proper rain is so I can get stuck back into some gardening again…
Daylight saving or ‘summer time’ arrived in our part of Australia the other week and with it came the start of gloriously long, light evenings.
It’s given me a renewed energy for the warm weather ahead and instead of coming home from work feeling tired and ready to hunker down for the evening, I find myself wanting to potter about and get little jobs done, so they’re not eating into my precious days off.
One job though, I’m finding less of a chore and more of a wonderful little ritual…
Over the last few years I’ve developed a deep affection for having a garden. In my younger days, it was a hassle – something that took up precious weekend time, but now I thoroughly enjoy watering, weeding and getting a bit of dirt under my fingernails.
Adam and I had a rambling cottage garden in the U.K., complete with terrace vegetable patch. I desperately wanted to replicate our bags of potatoes and pots of peas, tomatoes and lettuces this spring, but the timing of our trip back to England for our wedding, meant it just wasn’t feasible and we’d miss picking the fruits of our labours.
In a bid to satisfy my earthen cravings, I’ve compromised and decided this spring I’m going potty…
August has only just arrived, but I’m getting the faintest hint of spring in the air. The nights are still chilly, but the sun is sticking around longer and longer each day. Its rays now have that distinct warm weather glow about them, rather than that feeble almost pastel-like patina.
This year’s run of frosty mornings have taken their toll on our little garden and a few plants have fallen victim to the sub-zero temperatures. Others have embraced the cold and are almost ready to declare the arrival of the change in season…
Winter blew in over the weekend, bringing with it foggy mornings, chilly temperatures and light rain. In some parts it was even cold enough for snow – but more on that later this week!
The cool grey days were a welcome tonic to me after an eight day work week. They justified my lingering morning coffees in bed and afternoons snuggled up on the couch with a book. In those peaceful moments, as I glanced around the house, I noticed though there was nothing ‘living’ inside – no bunches of flowers, no houseplants.
When the weather is so bleak outside, sometimes having brightly coloured blooms inside doesn’t quite feel so I decided I’d use the season for inspiration and create some more winter appropiate bouquets…
Up until the last decade or so the ‘community garden’ was a concept that was a little unheard of. Sure the premise was easy enough to understand but communal garden beds seemed to be the stuff of hippy towns on the coast or progressive towns in far flung places. Now they’re everywhere and to be honest it’s really, really nice.
The other weekend I had the pleasure of spending a few hours in Wagga Wagga’s community garden – a place I’d driven past dozen of times but never found the time to visit…
Summer seems like a bit of a distant memory now. The days are cooler, shorter and darker and leaves are falling from the sky like giant, colourful raindrops.
I was amazed by our little Malvern garden during the warmer weather. Every week it felt like a new flower or plant was blooming and the air was thick with the sound of bees buzzing about.
Our little patch of green has been slowly falling asleep over the last few weeks, but it’s still proving to be a source of inspiration…
Isn’t it amazing how when you go away and then come back home again you pick up on changes you never noticed before?
The day after returning from Scotland I spent almost a good hour poking around the garden, amazed at all the new flowers that had suddenly appeared.
Wattle and Ash 